Cecil Beaton @ the V&A

There are only 12days left to go see Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton at the VandA...Not that these images are in the exhibition, but i just love the way he put his sketchbooks and proof pages together, so i'm using them as a loose connection. Beaton could do it all. 

The exhibition is well worth seeing and will act as a great warm-up act for another fabulous VandA show in May (as well as the actual Diamond Jubilee, of course) - Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950...

Sinister Fairytales

The Stuff of Nightmares @ Museum of Childhood. The Brothers Grimm's Fundevogel, seen through the eyes of Caley Primary School, Morpeth Secondary School and Tower Hamlets College.

...by Paris based photographer Thomas Czarnecki

the battle to be the fairest fairytale film of all this summer...

Angelina Jolie in Maleficent (Evil villain in Disney's Sleeping Beauty), set for release March 2014

Angels the costumiers- the tour

If you love vintage, costume, historical design, or just clothes full stop (everyone then?), then the Angels Tour is a mandatory experience. After years of enquires, the famous costumiers finally opened their doors to the public. And man did they do it well! The tour of their humongous HQ whizzes by in about 1.5hrs, taking in all the themed rooms, decades and categories of clothing. The sheer scale of the place is breath-taking, with over 6 million pieces of clothing throughout. This is an enthusiasts paradise. The films, tv and theatre productions that they're credited with is unbelievable. And then there are the stories that come with them! Part of the charm of the tour are all the little anecdotes that accompany each section - but don't worry, no spoilers here. 

The team pull from a vast pool of knowledge, to not only create accurate, authentic outfits for various projects, but to also make sure that it's all fed back into the incredibly organised, categorised, storage system - no guess work here.

As you can imagine, the tour is pretty popular and the groups are small, so booking in advance is a must. Tickets are £25 and well worth it!

the badge room

the fur room

this is where my knees started to buckle...

Kusama at the Tate Modern

On a random, free afternoon last month, i decided to pop into the Tate Modern to linger over the much talked about Yayoi Kusama exhibition. Now, i admit, i didn't know much about Kusama until all the exhibition related articles starting streaming out, which was actually really refreshing. I went in with a clear mind and was completely bowled over. Every room produced an internal 'wow' moment, until i couldn't hold it in any longer and was actually gasping with joy towards the end. This woman's journey through her art is spectacular and i will never do it justice through words. It needs to be experienced. In a shit-hot cultural calender year, this is going to be the exhibition to beat. Good Luck Damien.